


Everyone Has a Beginning

by emeraldeye



Series: Kaelah Shepard, Beginnings [1]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-28
Updated: 2015-02-09
Packaged: 2018-03-09 12:22:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3249521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emeraldeye/pseuds/emeraldeye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kaelah Shepard grew up an orphan on earth and signed up for the Alliance military as soon as she was old enough. Her first mission there was a complete disaster in which she was the sole survivor. </p><p>This is the story of Shepard's time before the events of Mass Effect that made her famous.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Mission

**Author's Note:**

> I'm thinking this will be a two part work, part one covering her time on earth before joining the military, and part two covering her early military career. It may be extended at a later date either as a new part or an entirely new story but we'll see what happens.

Her breath coming in ragged gasps, Shepard leaped over a crate that had spilled into the alley from the neatly stacked pile to the side. Accessing her biotics she waved a hand behind her, the purple field sending the stacked crates tumbling across the alleyway behind her. She smiled hearing the shouted curses but didn't stop running, she couldn't afford to. The stitch in her side felt like a knife stabbing between her ribs, twisting this way and that as she gasped air in and out. Risking a glance behind her she saw that her pursuers were a distance behind her so she dodged down another side alley. She knew these streets like the back of her hand, better even. She knew every street, side alley and short cut available. She was confident she could lose them without having to resort to violence, she just prayed that her pursuers were not so well informed. Taking several turns in quick succession, some even winding back the way she came, she eventually dodged into a crumbling building and, trying to get her breathing under control, she waited silently. 

Once, she thought she heard the men pursuing her come close, but they didn't look inside the building, they just kept running past. And then silence - or at least sounds absent of her pursuers - reigned. Pulling the wad from her pocket she grinned. There were enough credits here to feed her and Jarek for a month. Of course they would have to be careful how they spent it lest it be traced, but they hadn't survived as long as they had by not being careful. Pushing black sweaty locks from her face, Shepard headed deeper into the building, circling around the crumbling masonry and cement with a practiced ease. There, deep in the shadows, she saw a couple of hunched figures and she moved towards them.

"How is she?" Shepard asked. 

Jarek looked up from where he was crouched over the body of a young girl, no more than twelve years old. "Bad," he said. "If we could buy the right medicine she might survive, otherwise..." he trailed off, his meaning obvious.

"I could try to steal it," Shepard offered, but Jarek was already shaking his head.

"It'll be too well guarded, even for someone of your skill Kyle," he said, using her street name. "We'll have to buy it, but where we'll get those kinds of credits, I have no idea."

Shepard's hand reached into her pocket where the credits she had just stolen were. There was enough there for the medicine they needed, she was sure, but that would leave nothing for food or water. Winter was coming and it was always much harder to steal anything in the snow with numb fingers. She was lucky to have gotten this much and gotten away with it, lucky that the snow that had fallen this morning had already melted away to grey slush that left no distinguishable footprints. And, she thought coldly, with one less mouth to feed the money would stretch even further, though she pushed that thought from her mind. Jess, the girl laying unconscious on the ground, was Jarek's younger sister and she had pulled her weight up until now, Shepard couldn't just abandon her to die. 

"I have the money," she said, "but I would rather use it on food if possible. I'll try to steal the medicine, but if I can't then we'll buy it." She pulled the wad of credits from her pocket and dropped it to the ground next to Jarek. His eyes widened comically seeing it and he snatched it up, nodding. "What do you know of the medicine you need? Where can I get it?"

"The only place I know of is from the Alliance," Jarek said. Kaelah grimaced; the Alliance was a hard mark even for her and one she normally avoided. Not for any moral qualms or anything like that - if they were really serving humankind they would worry less about what was up in space and more about the people of their home planet - but because they were always so well guarded. Kaelah could fire a pistol as well as anyone and her biotics, if uncontrolled, were powerful enough to get her into or out of most situations, but the Alliance had more firepower than she could hope to come up against and get out alive. Still, everyone had a weakness, even the human Alliance, and it was those weaknesses that she could exploit to get what she wanted. 

"There's an outpost about an hour away by speeder," she said. "I can take the bike and it will let me get away fast too. What am I looking for?"

Jarek nodded as she spoke of their speeder bike, another 'acquisition' that they rarely used if only because it had limited fuel and, once out, was useless to them. "Either a plant that looks like green stalks, about this big," he held his hands apart about a foot, "or a greenish goop stuff. Both will work with what we have here."

Shepard nodded. "I'll grab some medigel too," she said. "It couldn't hurt and may come in handy."

Jarek nodded. "Kyle," he called as Shepard went to leave. She paused. "Be careful. I don't want to lose you too."

Shepard grinned. "Always," she said, before leaving the dilapidated building out the back. Straddling the bike, she kicked it into gear and took off.


	2. The Alliance Base

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaelah Shepard attempts to steal supplies from an Alliance base.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long delay but here's a long chapter to make up for it :)

As Shepard sped through the familiar streets, the wind lifting her black hair from her face and making her blue eyes water, she allowed herself a moment to simply relax and imagine as though she were speeding away from all her troubles. Grinning she pushed the bike ever faster, dodging buildings and debris often almost too late but always managing it. Sometimes growing up on the slums of earth it was hard to just let loose and have fun; they were always concerned with security and staying warm and where their next meal would come from. Shepard had broken away from gang life as soon as they had discovered that she was female. When she was very young, perhaps six or so, she had seen a woman being used for sex by several men. Some were rough some were gentle but all were unwanted even if they paid her in credits or food. Shepard remembered looking down at her own prepubescent body and imagined being forced to do that to survive and decided then and there that she would never submit to it. Since then she had passed as Kyle, skilled thief and unstable biotic. At least until her first period. She had been so scared of it that she came out to the man who was skilled at medics in her gang. He had reassured her that it was natural but wanted to extract payment with sex. Kaelah had paid him by crushing his balls with her biotics. She was thirteen. Since then she made her own way and had learned how to get what she wanted by changing her appearance. Sometimes she did so so often that she couldn't remember if she was Kaelah pretending to be Kyle or Kyle pretending to be Kaelah.

Which brought her to her current problem: did she approach the Alliance base as a male or a female? On the one hand a male was less likely to be noticed as there were generally more men in the military than women, but on the other hand if she were caught she knew from experience that they were likely to go easier on her as a girl.

But Kaelah rarely got caught.

Decided, Kaelah parked her bike a few streets away where it wouldn't be noticed, took an empty bag she could use to carry what she found in, and activated the security system. She then took a few moments to reposition the sock she had stuffed down the front of her pants and tightened the straps she wore across her breasts, wincing as she did so. Usually she didn't wear the straps so tight, just tight enough that it wasn't obvious she had breasts. It was too painful to wear them completely flat all the time and Jarek only knew her as Kyle. But with the Alliance she wasn't taking any chances.

That done, she strode confidently towards the alliance base. Standing to the side of the street, she pretended to pick something out of her nails while leaning up against a wall. Really though, she was watching from beneath her lashes. This particular Alliance base wasn't particularly well fortified. In fact, while it had walls, it didn't have gates - people seemed free to move in and out so long as they didn't draw the attention of the armed guards standing either side of the entrance. That was easy at least, just snag a crate from somewhere and walk in like she owned the place. Once there though, she knew it would be harder. She had to find the medicine - no small task in itself - and then somehow get it out. 

"This would be so much easier if I could read," she muttered to herself. She knew what she was looking for, but it would be so much quicker if she could just understand the squiggly lines that spoke words into people's heads. Well, maybe she could just wing it. She couldn't see far enough inside the base from where she was to guess where she needed to go so she would just have to make it up. She worked better that way anyway; plans could go wrong and then you were stuck. At least when there was no plan she wasn't left floundering when it inevitably went wrong.

Seeing someone in alliance uniform coming striding towards her, Kaelah grinned. Luck was with her today! She waited until the young man had passed her then started following him. When she was sure they were far enough away not to be noticed by anyone, her biotics struck out. It was a haphazard attack - she had never had any real training in using them and extended use tended to leave her with headaches - but it was enough to push the man forward and fall flat on his face. Kaelah leaped forward and landed on his back. Taking a handful of hair she lifted his head then slammed it into the concrete once more, hard, knocking him unconscious. She worked quickly then, stripping him of his uniform before dragging him behind some boxes and throwing some rubbish over him to hide him. He wasn't dead and, really, wasn't badly hurt, but he would wake up with a hell of a headache and not have any idea who had caused it. Changing into her uniform, trying to adjust it where she could so it didn't look too big on her. 

Taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, Kaelah straightened her back, rose her chin, and strode confidently back to the Alliance base, giving the guards at the gate barely a nod in acknowledgement as she walked passed them. They paid her no heed. She couldn't resist a small smile at her obvious success even though she knew that getting inside was the easy part. Her uniform didn't have any of those colourful badges or bars on it that she could tell, no identifying features that would identify the man she stole them from of having any rank so she decided to play the part of someone new to the military life who was just transferred here. She had no idea whether such an occurrence was common or not, so it was a risk if that wasn't the case, but it seemed to be a reasonable guess; after all, if new comers weren't common the guards should have noticed her as someone they didn't recognise.

Well, if she was going to play the new recruit it would make sense she would have to visit the medic right? She hoped so, but just in case she approached someone dressed as a normal civilian rather than a soldier. 

"Excuse me," she said. "I'm new here, looking for the medic?"

"Hospital's that way, that big tent over there," the man said, poking his thumb over his shoulder before hefting a box and carrying it out, balanced on his shoulder. 

Following the direction he had pointed, Kaelah guessed it was the largest of the tents there. There were bigger places, but they were all cement buildings. This was the largest tent, an ugly olive green that she supposed used to be camouflage when there was actually vegetation on the planet. She had heard stories from the older members of the gang she had been in as a child that the trees and plants used to grow naturally, and in some areas, designated farm areas and whatever, they still did. For the most part, though, all plant life grew in designated groves, and slum kids like her weren't allowed to play there. It ruined the peaceful image and they might corrupt the kids who had a home and family. Kaelah had ignored that once, and had a few hours playing with a young girl there. But then her father had seen her and recognised what the girl didn't (or didn't care about), that her dirty, unwashed appearance marked her as a rat, and he shot at her, scaring her off. She had never returned to any of the groves since, she didn't belong there. They belonged to nice people who didn't have to work for a living or worry about how they were going to keep warm in winter or eat for the next week. She lived in the real world. A real world where she had to steal medicine to survive, like she was doing now. 

Knowing that the whole pretence of being a new recruit wouldn't hold under the close scrutiny of a doctor, Kaelah went into thief mode once more. Sticking to the shadows made by boxes of supplies, Kaelah hid and, for a while, just watched. From here she could see at least half of the inside of the hospital tent and she knew she had the right place by the stretchers spread in neat and orderly rows and the machines connected to the few injured soldiers, doing whatever it was medic machines did. Kaelah really had no idea. She could also see people as they entered the tent and watch them, though her view of the rest of the base was quite limited. She watched as doctors in long white coats - why white, she wondered, they would only get stained with blood, they should be black or at least red - walking between the beds, talking to the patients that were awake, checking data pads and doing whatever it was doctors did. She honestly had no idea never having been to a fancy clinic like this one. The doctors she had dealt with were normally more dangerous than the gang members; they could kill you with a needle jab if they so desired, and some did just for a bad attitude. 

There were cupboards along one of the walls that she could see and occasionally a doctor would open one and take something out. That would be where the medicine was stored, she guessed. What she was after wasn't high grade stuff that needed to be kept under lock and key. It could be distilled into a drug, her old gang had done so on occasion, but it was a difficult process and there were easier things to use. For now though, she just watched and listened. Much of the talk she heard from the medic tent was incomprehensible, all big words and technical terms, but the soldiers patrolling around she understood well enough. They resented being assigned here for the most part, and blamed the 'scum of earth' as though it were their fault. That only made Kaelah angry; like it was their fault they happened to be born poor! No one would actually choose that life and most rats spent their entire lives trying to get out of it in whatever way they could think of. Kaelah was no exception; she never knew her parents and that made it easy to imagine all kinds of things about them and why they had abandoned her. As a child in her most frivolous moments she would imagine the typical princess scenario: her parents were important leaders and they had been attacked on a visit to earth, they believed their beloved daughter killed but one day they would find out about her and come lift her up from the dirty and dangerous streets and she could live a life of luxury. Complete bollocks of course, and she knew that now. Life was what you made it and no one would look out for you but you. Even Jarek, while she liked and trusted him, she knew he would turn on her to save his own skin if he had to, just as she would. That's just what life was. These soldiers didn't seem to get that, didn't seem to understand that life was what you made it and if you spent your whole time complaining then of course you would hate it. Part of her was envious though. They had obviously experienced something better than this in order to have something to complain about. But being envious wouldn't get the job done. She had to get in, find the medicine, grab whatever else she could find that looked useful, and get out.

Finally, as night fell, she felt she could move. The docs that still wandered around were tired, at the end of their shift, and most of the patients were either asleep or comatose. Taking a breath to steady her sudden nerves, Kaelah stood, wincing a little as stiff knees protested the sudden movement. She still kept to the shadows but no longer tried to hide her presence. Besides which, there was no where to hide here, so she just walked calmly between the rows of bunks to the cupboard she had seen. Opening it, her eyes quickly scanned over the jars and boxes of the labels.. Using the open doors as a form of cover, she pulled the bag out and quickly stuffed some medigel in there. That was the first thing she recognised and it was perhaps one of the most prized things on the streets, behind only credits and red sand. Jarek had described what the label looked like and, finally, she spotted it. Stuffing it in her bag she was about to turn and leave when a voice spoke behind her. 

"You're not supposed to be in there. What are you looking for, I can get it for you."

Kaelah's back stiffened at being caught before she could stop it, and she quickly snatched up some medigel. Turning and putting her best charming smile on her face she said, "No need, I only needed some medigel. One of the men got injured in training, not bad but enough to warrant some of this."

The doctor frowned at her and held his hand out for the medigel, which Kaelah handed over, plastering a chagrined look on her face. "You should send him here to see me, just in case. I don't need to write yet another report about a soldier deciding he was too macho to get treatment when needed," the doctor said.

Nodding, Kaelah said, "I will," before taking her leave, trying to look as casual as she could. Her heart was hammering in her chest at being questioned like that, she was just lucky that the doctor seemed to believe her story. No one else seemed to pay her any mind. This was all nearly too easy! Kaelah wondered just how many rats like her had actually dared to raid the Alliance base. It couldn't be many or surely the security would have been a lot tighter. It was almost child's play getting in here, Jarek could have done it and he wasn't always known for his subtlety. Maybe she should try to grab a few more things. Fuel for their speeder would be ideal but she doubted that would look inconspicuous; she hadn't seen any alliance transports near her exit and carrying out fuel away from wherever they kept their transports was only going to look suspicious. Food was always useful, but to find that she would no doubt need to locate the mess, a place that was sure to be crawling with soldiers. She could try to blend in there but she would rather not risk it. 

Hearing a noise and swearing, Kaelah glanced to her left. A civilian was carrying a box into the camp and had tripped, spilling its contents, thermal clips, everywhere. Now that was something they could use! Kaelah always preferred to avoid confrontation wherever possible but she knew that it was rarely possible, especially in the slums of Earth. Changing her path slightly, she turned to follow the civilian who had now gathered up the fallen clips and tossed them back into the box. Keeping a discrete distance, Kaelah followed him to what looked like a small warehouse. She leaned against a nearby wall, pretending to pick at her nails while she waited for the civilian to leave and then, quickly, ducked inside. It was dark in here but she could make out the damaged box easily enough. Figuring she would take what she could from there, knowing that any missing would be blamed on the clumsy civilian, she ripped the box open and started stuffing the thermal clips inside her bag.

"Hey! What are you doing there?"

Kaelah jumped at the sudden voice and looked over her shoulder. This time it seemed she hadn't been so lucky; it wasn't a preoccupied doctor or a timid clumsy civilian who had seen her but a huge burly marine. It seriously looked as though at least two of Kaelah could fit inside him with room to spare, and his forearms were the size of her thighs. That was as far as she got before the hulking man stepped further into the warehouse. "Who are you? You're not any recruit I recognise."

That phrase alone was enough to let Kaelah know she couldn't bluff her way out of this one. That he had said he didn't recognise her as a recruit meant he had a lot to do with the recruits normally. Hoping that her smaller size would grant her an advantage of speed, Kaelah fastened the bag, threw it over her shoulder and bolted, straight towards the hulk. Surprise, at least, was on her side as he just stared at her stunned for a moment or two, but just when she thought she was past him, a vice-like grip fastened around her wrist, crushing it painfully. "Now, just hold on a minute," the man started.

Kaelah didn't think, she just reacted. Her hands glowed blue as she summoned up her biotic powers and gave an almighty shove. The hulk let go of her wrist and stumbled back a few steps. She took her chance and run, continuing to use her biotics to topple a few boxes behind her.

"Rick! Get over here, we got a rogue biotic!" the hulk shouted from behind her.

Another man, Rick she guessed stepped in front of her. Once more summoning her biotics, she flung her arm forward in a punch. She liked that particular attack, had used it on numerous occasions before. It always surprised whoever she was fighting that while her fist couldn't reach, her biotics shot out to punch them in her stead. That was what normally happened. This Rick glowed the same colour and he swiped a hand almost contemptuously, knocking her attack aside before throwing one of his own. Kaelah had no idea how to toss aside a biotic attack like he had done, she had never come up against another one, so she did the best she could and dived to the side. It wasn't enough, the force striking her shoulder and sending her spinning off to the side to skid along the dirt. It knocked the wind out of her lungs and her shoulder hurt! With a groan she pulled herself to her knees, her hand cupping her sore shoulder. It felt wrong, somehow, but she wasn't given a chance to look before a hand wrapped around her throat, lifting her and slamming her back against the concrete wall of the warehouse behind her. Her head hit hard and she saw stars before her eyes for a moment but her own hands reached up to wrap around the arm holding her there. Instinctively, she started to reach for her biotics again but the hand around her throat just pulled her away from the wall slightly only to slam her back again. "Don't even try it," came the voice, little more than a growl. "What was he doing in there?"

"Stealing thermal clips from what I could gather," the hulk man said as he came up behind the biotic holding her. He reached behind her and snatched her bag from her, opening it and looking inside. An eyebrow rose. "Quite a hurl you've got there," he said, raising an eyebrow to Kaelah. "What were you planning to do with it all."

Defiant despite her position, Kaelah answered by spitting in the hulk's face. She watched his expression change from considering to shock to fury before one of those ham fists swung forward to backhand her across the mouth.

"What's going on here!" 

Kaelah heard the voice, a woman's voice, through the ringing in her ears but she was instantly aware of the way the two men before her straightened and Rick let go of her. Kaelah took advantage of their distraction and instinctively let her biotics blast outwards in a wave, pushing the two of them back. Running she snatched her bag from the hulk holding it and ran past them. She thought she was even getting away as there was no sound of pursuit, but then a force slammed into her back and she flew forward until her body struck another building, her forehead slapping the concrete and she knew no more.


	3. A proposition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaelah learns that not everyone in the Alliance hates her on principal.

The pain in her head was the first hint that Kaelah was starting to wake up. With her eyes still closed, she allowed her mind to run over her body, twitching her fingers and toes, trying to work out what injuries she may have without anyone around her knowing she was awake. Her shoulder hurt and she couldn't move her arm, she felt what she assumed was numerous bruises and grazes and her head hurt but other than that she seemed alright. Her legs were ok so that was most important if she needed to run. Slowly she opened her eyes, just a slit at first to take in what was around her while still appearing unconscious. Her vision was blurry but it looked as though she were in a tent of some kind, and there was a dull yellow light somewhere. She couldn't see the source but it lit up enough of the area to see that she was lying in an army cot and there was someone sitting near her, a woman, with her back to her writing something on a desk. She was wearing the Alliance blue, but her blonde hair was long and loose, tumbling down her back in golden waves. An irrational part of Kaelah wanted to reach out and touch it, to see if it felt as soft as it looked. 

Eyes now open fully, Kaelah slowly tried to sit up silently so she could run as soon as she was given the chance, but doing so sent a jab of pain through her head and she only just managed to bite back a groan. She must have made some noise though as the woman turned around. "Ah, awake finally are you? I was worried you would be out all night."

Kaelah said nothing, only sitting very still, poised as though ready to run at a moment's notice. The woman wasn't smiling, in fact the corners of her mouth were turned down in disapproval, but her hazel eyes seemed kind, gentle almost. She didn't seem surprised when Kaelah said nothing and continued talking anyway. "Your shoulder was dislocated in the fight, I relocated it and strapped your arm to your chest to give it a chance to heal. You gave Rick quite the shock when he realized it was a girl he was fighting," she added with an amused smile.

Amusement was the opposite of what Kaelah felt when she said that and she instantly looked down to see that the bindings she used around her breasts had been removed. In fact, she was wearing nothing but her underwear, the Alliance uniform she had stolen gone. She pulled her knees up to her chest and used the woollen blanket to cover herself. The woman chuckled softly at Kaelah's obvious embarrassment. "He was concerned when your socks moved, he thought he had done some poor boy some serious damage. Tell me though, where are your parents?" Kaelah remained silent still. "Do you have any?" Kaelah hesitated then shook her head; what difference would it make really if this woman knew she had no parents? "Then who taught you how to use your biotics?"

"No one," Kaelah answered, proud despite herself. She had known other biotic rats but most of them had been driven mad by their powers, if they were lucky. Others had been killed. She had done neither and instead practised them to try to make them useful.

A golden eyebrow rose at her answer and from her tone, Kaelah could tell she didn't believe her. "You mean to tell me that you taught yourself how to use them?"

"It's not hard," Kaelah said flippantly, bragging a little. "I want to punch someone, it punches. Or pushes or pulls."

"Do you have any side effects? Headaches or nose bleeds?"

She had had both depending on what she tried to do, but as far as Kaelah was concerned such things were a weakness, and she was not about to admit any weaknesses here. She got the feeling that she wasn't in any immediate danger here - if this Alliance woman had wanted to hurt her she had had plenty of opportunity to do so while she had been unconscious - but that didn't mean she could let her guard down. The woman seemed to sense this and shook her head. "It doesn't matter. It's unusual and I was curious, that's all. What I do need to know is, first, how old are you, and second, why you were stealing medical supplies and thermal clips."

Her voice was all stern now and that immediately got Kaelah's back up. "What do you think for," she snapped. 

"Medigel, I can understand, I imagine it is in fairly low supply for rats like you. But thermal clips? And ringroot?"

"In case you didn't notice the streets aint exactly safe. Thermal clips are useful for keeping guns working," Kaelah pointed out. "And I'm seventeen," she added, remembering the other part of the question and figuring giving her age wouldn't hurt.

The blonde woman nodded. "The ringroot then? You're not ill, at least not as far as I could tell."

Kaelah pursed her lips and looked away, refusing to answer. To admit that first, there was someone she cared about, and then second that they were ill and needed that medicine, both would be admitting a weakness that could be exploited. She was tired of being exploited so remained silent. 

The woman waited for several minutes until it was clear that she was getting nothing, then sighed. "Well, I can't simply allow you to take the thermal clips knowing that they would only be used to further the violence already present on the streets but," she paused and reached behind her, picking up and holding out Kaelah's lost bag. "Here," she said. "The ringroot and some medigel is in there. Not as much as you tried to steal but enough that you should be able to get by." Kaelah made to grab the bag but it was pulled out of her reach, causing her to glare at the woman. "One condition though. I want you to consider signing up to the Alliance when you turn eighteen." Kaelah's face must have shown what a ridiculous proposition she thought that was because the woman laughed at her. "I know, it sounds crazy. But if you do you will have a place to live, reliable food, even an income. What's more, we can teach you to use your biotics properly so you can defend yourself and those you love. It's a way to get you off the streets and I already know you're mentally strong enough to handle it. You wouldn't have survived as a rat as long as you have if you weren't. So if you promise me you'll think about it, I'll give this to you and let you leave with no repercussions."

"Fine," Kaelah said and made to snatch the bag only to have it once more snatched away from her. She glared at the woman who only rose an expectant eyebrow. Sighing dramatically, she said, "Alright, I promise I'll think about it." The woman waited only a few seconds before handing the bag over. She also opened a drawer and pulled out a plain cotton dress and gave it to Kaelah. 

"I'm assuming you have your real clothes hidden away somewhere so this should be fine to keep you decent. I hope to see you in a year," the woman said before standing and leaving the tent. 

Once left in privacy, Kaelah quickly shed the blanket she had and pulled the dress over her head. She looked around the tent, considering what she could possibly take but then sighed. She couldn't do that, not after the woman had both fixed her shoulder and let her go even after being caught stealing. At least she had the medicine and really, that was what was most important. Gritting her teeth, Kaelah turned and left the tent before she could be tempted to go back on her honour. The Alliance guards seemed to have been told to let her pass as she had no trouble leaving the base and finding her speeder once more. No doubt Jarek would be wondering where she was - the sun was starting to turn the sky grey now - but Kaelah had no doubt her friend would never believe her if she told him.


End file.
